Pages

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Real STEM Crisis

Contrary to
the hysteria being whipped up by President Obama, Congressional leaders and the
media, there is no shortage of competent Science, Technology, Engineer or math
(STEM) graduates. There is, however, a crisis in funding of STEM research—a
crisis that is causing record numbers of young scientists to lose funding and
their jobs, while preventing many more from obtaining jobs in the first place.

Declining research
funding at the University of California system, for example, has prompted
several UCLA neuroscience researchers to move to the private University of Southern
California (USC). Overall, budget cuts have not resulted in a large exodus or
professors from the UC system (of the 306 faculty members receiving offers from
other schools last year, UC was able to retain 72% of them, according to the Los Angeles Times). However, UC has failed to replace
faculty as quickly as it used to. For example, in 2010-11, UC lost 428 faculty
members to retirement, but due to budget cuts was only able to replace 189 of
them.

Public universities perform 60% of all federally funded STEM research. While
federal funding did increase slightly between 2000 and 2007, the pace of the
increases slowed dramatically going into the recession and failed to keep up
with inflation and the growing number of STEM students and STEM researchers. In
constant 2005 dollars, federal
research funding actually declined between 2004 and 2008, peaking
momentarily in 2009 with an influx of cash from the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, and then declined
another 10% since 2010 (Data from Stand with Science). The American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) projects an additional $12 billion cut to Research and Development
funding due to sequestration this year, with a $60 billion overall decline
through 2017.

Consequently, competition for grants has intensified dramatically, with
the success rate for NIH (National Institutes of Health) grants declining from 30% in 1998
to 18% in 2012 (see graph below). Part of the reason for this is that the number of
applicants increased from less than 30,000 before 2003, to 40,000-50,000 after
2003, while the number of grants funded each year held steady at just below 10,000
or declined, as in the last several years.

The problem
is expected to grow worse in the coming years. With the number of scientists
requesting grants increasing, there needs to be a sizable increase in the
amount of federal and local dollars available for basic research. However, the
opposite is occurring. NIH’s budget is set to drop 7.6% over the next five
years, according to the Atlantic. NASA’s budget is projected to drop
to its lowest level since 1988. And the NSF, which currently provides 20% of
all federal research funding for universities, recently announced that it was cutting back on 1,000 new research
grants.

The STEM
crisis is a sham, at least as portrayed by the media and politicians.
Encouraging more students to major in STEM fields or to pursue STEM careers
without substantially increasing funding is only going to increase competition
for scarce resources and grants, thus driving down wages for scientists, and
forcing increasing numbers into the unemployment lines or out of academia and
into lower paying STEM “support” careers in private industry (e.g., production
or quality control).

In all
likelihood, this is precisely the intent. STEM is big business, (e.g.,
aeronautics, biotech, pharmaceuticals and computer technology). For the past
few decades public universities have been moving away from “pure” science and relying
more and more on deals with private industry (e.g., biotech companies) for
research funding, while simultaneously focusing more on developing their own marketable
patents. Blockbuster drugs, software and weapons require large cadres of highly
skilled workers who, historically, have earned relatively generous middle class
wages. However, these products are worth more to their patent-holders if they
can be produced with minimal labor costs, something that is facilitated by the
growing numbers of professors, post-docs and graduate students who can no
longer fund their own research or maintain secure jobs at public universities.